How Did Joe Mendez Influence Society

History’s importance in the shaping of society is largely regarded by many as trivial and insignificant. Countless individuals make the mistake of missing crucial aspects in which history plays an imperative role in the molding of society through the development of individualism. To emphasize its effect, a man by the name of Joe Mendez volunteered to give a firsthand account of his past and the way American history shaped him into the person he came to be today. Born in March 1948, Mr. Mendez has seen, heard, and been a part of many significant moments involving the history of the United States. The major themes in which he can correlate to the most in his life focus around opportunity/obstacles, war/patriotism, and the ideal view of the American

This huge declaration affected countless young American male lives throughout the country, but Mendez never knew the direct effect it would have on himself. At this time, he was finishing up high school when the statement of increased troops in Vietnam was made. Then one fateful day in 1967, Mendez was notified he had been selected to be drafted into the U.S. Army. Shortly after his entrance into the military, as an infantryman, he was given orders of being deployed to Vietnam February of 1968. With his arrival in Vietnam, he wouldn’t see U.S. soil again for another 14 long months. The following conversation had at this point become very emotional with Mendez explaining his experiences during the Vietnam War. Mendez described War as something that leaves permanent scars in your life and makes you truly realize the value of life/death. War makes you feel like you are inhumane or an animal after the things that had to be done just to ensure you survived. Even with his arrival back in the states in March of 1969, he faced many encounters of people unwilling to provide him services while in uniform and announcing that he was nothing more than a “baby killer”. While experiencing firsthand the prejudice some people held toward troops for serving in Vietnam he admits that he didn’t have any political bias

Mendez realized this during his time growing up under his father’s view of the American Dream and later on his own developing opinion of what that phrase represented. During his childhood throughout the 1950s, Mendez’s father shared the population’s overall view of what the American Dream signified. To most people at that time the American Dream could be summed up into just one word, opportunity. Whether it was the opportunity of starting a family, the opportunity of starting their own company, the opportunity of educating themselves, or the opportunity of owning a home the general consensus of what that phrase meant was linked directly to opportunity. Mendez shared this belief as well throughout his younger years until after he had enlisted into the U.S. Army and experienced War. From there, his opinion of what the American Dream was began to evolve into what it would become today. After serving in the military Mendez work closely with the federal government for many years to come whether it being during his time in the Border Patrol or other civil service positions. Due to all his work and life experience he began to regard the American Dream in a different way than just opportunity. “The American Dream is citizens ability to live under laws that prevent others from affecting the progress of living as equals and